


Charlie In The Box

by hunters_retreat



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Don is good at hiding stuff, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 17:08:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1436218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>  “You know, you don’t have to hide in here every time we watch Rudolph?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Charlie In The Box

  
“You know, you don’t have to hide in here every time we watch Rudolph?”

Charlie looked up from the chalkboard and turned to look at his brother.  Don closed the door behind him before stopping to lean against the door frame, a half smile on his face.  He wore faded jeans and work boots and an old tee shirt that looked soft and well worn, like a favorite.  He looked at peace with himself in ways that Charlie knew he never would.  Like whatever the world threw at Don Eppes, he was just fine with it and it was going to have to be just fine with him.

“I’m not hiding.  I was reviewing my work.”

“Cognitive emergence?”

Charlie smiled, because Don even coming close to naming what he was working on was something.  “Yeah, I was just taking a look.  With the holidays and no pressure from the school or classes, it’s a nice time to let things relax and look again with fresh eyes.”

“Or to hide from Rudolph.”

“Why do you think I’m hiding?”

“I’m an FBI agent Charlie and long before they taught me to study people I’d been studying you.  You always walk out when Rudolph comes on, so just fess up now.”  He said with a small, genuine smile.

Charlie wanted it to mean something.  He wanted that secretive smile to mean the same thing it would mean to him but it didn’t and he knew it.  He was the only one with that issue.  Another reason Don was at ease in his skin in ways Charlie couldn’t be.

“It’s nothing.  I just don’t like it.”

“Because…”

Charlie let out a deep sigh as he looked at Don.  His brother wasn’t going to let up and as close as they’d become in the last year he felt like he just might understand.  He took a seat on the couch Don had given him for Christmas.  It was too much, but Don had insisted that since he was spending so much time working on FBI cases, the least he could do was buy him something comfortable for the garage.  Not only was the couch nice and comfortable, but it was a fold out bed also, something he could really appreciate since he’d spent years sleeping on a fold out cot whenever he got too caught up in his work to go inside.

 “I just… you know the scene on the island?” 

Don sat beside him, smiling.  “Yeah, the meet the King and they do that little song.  Why was that doll there anyway?”

Charlie smiled, but it wasn’t real and Don seemed to notice by the way his eyes tightened as he looked at him.  “They had a Jack in the Box, remember?  Nobody wanted him, because his name was Charlie.”

“Charlie…”

“It wasn’t that.  I mean, the name never bothered me, but the rest of it?  Those misfits who didn’t belong with kids because they were too different?  That was me.  I never fit in and instead of getting to ride in Santa’s sleight, I just always felt like I was them, you know?  This misfit sitting on some icy rock waiting for Santa to show up and take me away to find the kids who wanted to play with me.”

“Charlie…”  Don sighed.  “You were never like that.  You were so far ahead of the rest of us, we didn’t know what to do with you.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean it hurt any less.”

“I never wanted you to feel alone Charlie.”  He said, and Charlie knew he meant it.  As much as he and Don had fought over the years, Don had always had Charlie’s back. 

“I know, but you were a normal kid and wanted to be with your friends and I was just always jealous that you had them.”

Don looked down at his hands and sighed, before looking up at Charlie again.  “Did I ever tell you what I wanted to be when I was a kid?”

“A cop?”

Don smiled.  “No.  That’s what I told everyone I wanted to be.  What I really wanted … was to be a cowboy who rides an ostrich.”

Don reached out, cupping Charlie’s face with one hand, his eyes uncertain but his hand steady.  “There was always at least one kid who wanted to play with you Charlie.  I just couldn’t, because the things I wanted to do… they weren’t okay.”

Charlie knew his eyes were huge, that he was losing the ability to think because of the hope that suddenly burned through him.

Don stood though, taking the warmth with him as he went.  When he got to the door, he stopped, looking back at him.

“Maybe Charlie… maybe I’m still waiting for you to realize you’re not the only misfit in the family.  Maybe I’m still waiting for a real kid who wants to be with me too.”  He waited a second, for Charlie’s nod and then he smiled, that easy smile that made something loosen in Charlie for the first time since he’d realized what he really felt for his older brother. 

“It’s just something to think about.”

Don walked out and Charlie thought about the years, all the hard times and how they’d managed to come around to their current relationship.  He thought about the odds of Don feeling what he felt, the odds of them being able to work something out.  He thought about the numbers that lay between them.

They always had though.  Numbers and equations had stacked up against them as soon as Charlie had learned that 1 stood for something.  They were here now though, together, working side by side and living in each other’s space more often than not.

There weren’t any answer in the garage though so he took a deep breath and made his way back to the living room where Dad and Don waited, where Larry and Megan and Colby and David were all laughing over the Bumble.

He walked in, hands in his pocket because he wasn’t sure he fit into this equation either, but Don looked up and saw him, smiling as he did.  “Come on in Chuck.”  He said, scooting over on the couch a little in invitation.  He draped his arm along the back of the seat and Charlie settled into the couch cushion. 

Don didn’t say anything but when the misfits came on, he brushed his fingers over the nape of Charlie’s neck.  He smiled down at his hands, then looked over at Don and the others.  “You know, it’s really not so bad being a Charlie in the Box.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas to all the Numb3rs fans on my Flist! And yes... I know as good little Jewish boys they don't celebrate Christmas, but I can see them watching Christmas stuff as kids and being allowed to go to Xmas parties and all that, with Mom and Dad laughing and talking to them about the differences. :P


End file.
